Autumn is my favorite time of year.

That said, it can also be less than great.  For the 5 1/2 years my wife and I have been married, something has happened every year around fall, including the loss of pets each of the last two years.  This year finds me looking for a new job.

The good part of it all is that the bad gets somewhat balanced with our favorite season, bringing cooler weather, festivals and apple season!  Apple pie doesn’t help me find a new job, but it makes the work of job hunting taste a lot better!

Two years ago, I posted about apple pie, but a couple of things have changed since then.  First, I moved from Typepad to Wordpress, hosting it on my own account.  This means that all the photos went away when I turned off my old site.  Second, I got an XL Big Green Egg so I can now bake apple pie outside on the cooker!

When I’m baking on the BGE, I set up the fire before prepping the food, to give the cooker time to get to settled in to the right temperature.  For the apple pie, I set it to about 400 degrees F.  I set up the platesetter on top of the grate, then I used some foil wadded up to hold a pizza stone off of the platesetter enough to allow it not to be in contact.  This means that the fire won’t directly affect the pizza stone, which in turn means I won’t burn the bottom of whatever I’m baking!

One thing that hasn’t changed is the crust I used.  I like it because it’s simple, and my grandma used to make it pretty much that way, and my mom still does.  Are there better crusts?  Probably, but they take a lot more time and care, and this one is actually pretty good.  The recipe is simple:

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• Dash of salt

 With a fork, I melt the shortening into the water.  This starts off kind of hard to do, but the hot water softens the shortening.  As the shortening mixes, the water seems to not want to mix with the shortening, but it always ends up working out.

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